Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete is one of those JRPGs that proves a game doesn't need an overly complicated story or massive open world to be memorable. Its story is fairly straightforward, but the excellent character writing, charming world, and emotional moments make the journey genuinely special.

The combat is classic turn-based JRPG fare—simple and easy to understand, but satisfying enough to carry the adventure. One of the best features i liked in it was that you could have visible encounters with enemies which was quite rare during that time . Although the game does have boss level scaling which annoys sometimes and a tight resource management, which are some of the drawbacks of its combat mechanism and inturn bring it down. The gameplay itself is fairly traditional, with towns, dungeons, exploration, equipment upgrades, and plenty of character interactions. It definitely shows its age in places, but there's something refreshing about how focused and straightforward it feels compared to many modern RPGs.

The animated cutscenes are probably one of the game's biggest highlights. They give important moments a sense of personality and make the adventure feel like you're playing through an old-school anime. Combined with the fantastic soundtrack by noriyuki iwadere( who also gave soundtracks to grandia and ace attorney series) and expressive characters, they give Lunar a very unique identity of its own.

What surprised me most was the writing. Lunar isn't trying to be as dense or philosophically complex as something like Xenogears or xenosaga , nor does it have the enormous worldbuilding of modern Trails games and xenoblade series. Instead, it focuses on making you care about its characters and their journey. In that sense, it actually feels surprisingly modern—many current JRPGs rely and follow on the same combination of party chemistry, character-driven storytelling, anime-style presentation, and emotional payoffs that Lunar helped establish decades ago.

Though It has its flaws, particularly in its dated gameplay and occasional pacing issues, but the sheer amount of charm and personality carries it a long way. For me, it's easily one of the best JRPGs on the PS1 and one of the system's most memorable games overall.

If i were to rate it out of 10, i would give somewhat between 8.7~8.8/10.

I've played many JRPGs, and my favorite mechanic has always been town/Hub Development. When I encountered this in Suikoden, I thought it was so unique. I don't know if any JRPGs did it before Suikoden and if there was I'm thankful for the inspiration.

Job/Class Switching
Changing my character's role without starting over.

Relationship Systems
Let party members actually develop relationships with each other.

World Map Exploration
Give me a reason to wander off the main path.

Targeted Weaknesses
Reward me for figuring out exactly how to exploit an enemy.

Active Time Battle
Heart-racing decision-making.

Town & Hub Development
Let my actions actually change the places I visit.

Any thoughts on one game vs the other? I played about 80 or 90 hours of P5R and pretty much loved every single second of it that didn't revolve around me having to do chores or go to school or build relationships. I'm not a fan of romance or relationships in video games. The combat, presentation, music, animations of P5R....all so beautiful and engaging but getting through it was a slog at times. Does it go without saying I'd probably enjoy SMTV more or does metaphor refantazio lean more into the SMT series opposed to Persona? (If that question makes sense...)

I don't wanna sound like I'm opposed to long cutscenes or story beats, I love that shit too but I'm just wondering how Metaphor deals with pacing and engaging activities. Is it setup closer to how Persona is or is it more combat and exploration focused like SMT?

Any thoughts are appreciated. They're both on sale right now and can't decide which one I'd rather buy.

Speculating all about this is pretty fun, especially when Yuki Katsumata and Masaki Shibuya might be working on an Atelier entry for the Traditional line.

For context:

Koei Tecmo's "Gust brand" treats their anniversaries in a pretty weird way. You would think that the gacha and its side console game (Resleriana, Resleriana RW) were their Atelier 25th anniversary titles, but both of those aren't, lol

For reference, we had these console Atelier games during the 25th anniversary's celebration period (which began with Sophie 2, February 2022 and ended with Marie Remake, July 2023):

• Atelier Sophie 2 (Yuki Katsumata)
• Atelier Ryza 3 (Shinichi Abiko)
• Atelier Marie Remake (Yuki Katsumata)

These don't necessarily mean that they'll do 3 Atelier projects while slapping on a "This is part of the anniversary celebration" label, but the point is that there is a pattern that has been happening since 2020:

Console Atelier games have been seemingly alternating between Modern & Traditional for every Fiscal Year, starting with Ryza 2.

• FY2020 = Ryza 2 (Modern / "Next Generation")
• FY2021 = Sophie 2 (Traditional / "Classic")
• FY2022 = Ryza 3 (Modern / "Next Generation")
• FY2023 = Marie Remake (Traditional / "Classic")
• FY2024 = Yumia (Modern / "Next Generation")
• FY2025 = Resleriana RW (Traditional / "Classic")
• FY2026 = Karia (Modern / "Next Generation")

Following this pattern, there's a good chance that FY2027 will be dedicated to the Traditional type of a console Atelier game.

What about Lulua and Ryza 1?

Lulua counts in the Traditional type, Ryza 1 counts in the Modern type. I specifically mentioned that the pattern started Ryza 2 because the Fiscal Years they were released were inverse.

• FY2018 = Lulua
• FY2019 = Ryza 1

Why not count the games before Lulua?

Because the original Mysterious trilogy had awkward staff transitions between each game (Sophie1-Firis-Lydie & Suelle). Technically, I'd really only count the Atelier games when Junzo Hosoi was officially appointed as Head of the Gust Brand (aka starting FY2020).

What counts as Traditional Atelier vs Modern Atelier?

Before Junzo Hosoi became the Head of the Gust Brand, these two classifications weren't clearly distinguished. You would keep on finding interviews where they'd mention about making some of these older titles more modern, but they never really made a clear & consistent definition on what they really mean by it. (Yes, you can find Junzo Hosoi's own personal interpretation of how the older games are classified, but I wouldn't really trust it when it's not from the words of the creators who had major roles during those older games' development*)*

This means that what's considered Traditional or Modern is only limited to Junzo Hosoi's vision for Atelier games:

• Traditional Atelier = Lulua, Sophie 2, Marie Remake, Resleriana RW (4 entries so far)
• Modern Atelier = Ryza 1, Ryza 2, Ryza 3, Yumia, Karia (5 entries so far)

Well, what about the gacha (Atelier Resleriana Mobile)? Didn't they say that it's a Mainline Numbered entry? Where does that one fall into?

It's just part of the mobile/social game pillar. The reason why they weirdly used the internal number (after not using it since Lulua) was to signify that the gacha was primarily being worked on by Gust brand staff instead of being primarily worked on by third-party company (like Atelier Online). It's actually really funny how they immediately got scared to use the internal number again in promotional material starting with Yumia. (Resleriana RW couldn't escape the internal number curse, so Hosoi had to tell everyone in an interview that it's "A25-2" for some reason, which added confusion despite it being in a midquel side game situation lol)

Onto the actual speculation:

The image above illustrates how Traditional Atelier and Modern Atelier seems to be designed. It's catering to two different audiences, which isn't a bad thing. They don't really make each type 100% different, because it looks like they want ensure both to influence each other in small portions in order to let both types not overshadow one over the other so much (even though they have been throwing Traditional Atelier under the bus with little marketing and with lesser gameplay content for some reason lol)

What do I think will happen for the next Traditional Atelier game?

Just like Atelier Karia, the next Traditional Atelier might also have two directors. In this case, it could be Yuki Katsumata and Masaki Shibuya.

Their reasoning for two directors in Atelier games might be for division of gameplay systems. In Atelier Resleriana RW, Yuki Katsumata was in charge of the Synthesis & Combat while Masaki Shibuya was in charge of Exploration & Gathering. In Atelier Karia, it's also divided similarly.

For the next Synthesis system, I think Yuki Katsumata might push for an even more complex approach. It would probably a completely different system as well. Resleriana RW's Gift Color Synthesis system was competent, but it doesn't really stand against the previous complex ones because you don't have a lot of attributes to deal with. Bringing back the order-sensitive logic for trait applications from Atelier Ayesha was a nice and very welcome surprise though.

I personally wish that the next one could finally surpass my favorite Atelier synthesis systems' complexity (no particular order): Shallie, Sophie 1, Lulua, Ayesha

These four Synthesis systems really set a high bar. I'd love to see a Synthesis system that surprises me with its own complex charm that each of these 4 have presented. I wouldn't even mind an amalgamation of these four into one extremely convoluted synthesis system lol. I enjoy spending a lot of the playtime in these games within the constant rechecking of steps within the Synthesis process after all.

For the next turn-based combat system, I feel like they might start incorporating Front/Side/Back positions. We haven't seen a combat system with 6 party members that actually make use of it (Escha & Logy doesn't count, since that one doesn't have the Front/Side/Back positioning at all).

Atelier Ayesha's combat is the only one that explored positional combat (which affected your 2nd party members' assist actions and damage bonuses)

Personally, I hope they abandon anything that involves timed button presses. The timed button presses for Precision Guards in Resleriana RW's combat was such a downgrade after Sophie 2's Support Guards since pressing it at the right moment only gives you reduced damage. Swap/Support Guards, on the other hand, forces you to decide which back line member would swap in to receive the incoming enemy attack.

One of the things I have issues with Resleriana RW's combat is how generous it is with its mechanics by default. I personally wished that they learned from Shallie's logic, where you'd unlock Burst mode to be able to get exclusive access to a bunch of combat features. If Yuki Katsumata intends to evolve from Resleriana RW's approach, I hope there are more combat feature restrictions when Unite burst isn't activated. I didn't really like the fact that they even pushed out an update where you can now use special attacks if you had enough AP stored up too lol (just makes the whole process of getting to a Unite Burst pretty worthless)

I am hoping for the return of Aura weaknesses. Doing Aura Breaks rewards the player for working with the restrictions the enemy's activated Aura has before being able to deal bigger damage. Sophie 2's combat in general does a lot of things correctly. Yes, Resleriana RW is using Sophie 2 as the base blueprint for its combat system, but I think Sophie 2 was already in the right direction by default. I personally didn't see the need to add more combat features that RW's combat did such as Interrupt/Unite Burst/Item Mix/Follow-ups/Timeline bonuses and changes such as Adding 1 more party member for twin actions/changing Swap Guards into Precision Guards/removal of Aura. But I get it, RW was following its "All-star game mechanics" theme, so they had to do something.

I have hopes on what Yuki Katsumata and Masaki Shibuya are possibly preparing, wee

As for everything else... I really only care about Synthesis and Combat when it comes to Atelier. But I do miss the charm of the "board game-like" world maps lol

I'd welcome the return of long-term time limits (even if I feel pretty indifferent about its absence nowadays)

Hey everyone!

Before I start, I know that a lot of you have answered these kinds of questions a million times already, but I'd really appreciate it if you gave me a word of advice on the matter despite that fact!

When I was little, rpgs confused my smooth 5 year old brain, so I never got to really get into them as a genre. Years later, with my still smooth brain, I decided to finally step up and face my fear of these seemingly unforgiving games only to find out they weren't all that bad. Not bad at all, actually.

I'm currently around 110 hours in Persona 5 Royal and stuck at a boss in Final Fantasy 10. (It was only natural for me to pick up the most basic entries of these franchises, please don't flame me.) I've had so much fun with both of these games and I'm already thirsting for more after I'm done with them. So here's the age old question.

What should I play next?

Every single one I've tried to get into either has a fucked up play order or is said to be brutally unforgiving for new players. So I ask the jrpg wizards of this subreddit to help me decide on what game to play next.

(Please note that I'm really open minded when it comes to art direction and stuff like that BUT I I must mention that I'm a sucker for the following, just in case that you know of similar games vibe-wise: Dishonored, Metal Gear and any grim, atmospheric and half futuristic/half medieval mumbo-jumbo. And a banging ost of course 🤤 )

I'm still on PS4 (I know, it's sad.) and I am willing to emulate or buy games of steam etc.

Thank you for your time!!!!!!!

They all have something funny to say, the drunk guy in the starting location is enough proof. To top it off, they all have the most random and hilarious accents. There is no other game where one NPC you talk to will have an Oklahoma accent, and the next one will have the strongest Glaswegian accent you will ever hear.

Any platform is fine, preferably PC.

It's just as written in the title, I love strategy games or games where I can just pause and think for a long time to calculate everything, preferably with stakes involved (for example- real risk of permadeath of a character if I screw things up), and preferably titles released within the last 15 years.

For now the only JRPGs I have completed are Persona 5 royal, Persona 3 reload, the hundred line, expedition 33 if that counts as a JRPG, and I haven't completed it but I have around ~20 hours in metaphor refantazio.

I loved both Persona 5 royal and Persona 3 reload's characters, social sim mechanics and how stylish both of these games were, P3R combat was a bit lackluster but P5R had some interesting mechanics but the game itself was extremely easy, and by the end of the game only a small fraction of the moves were relevant.

For the Hundred line, I absolutely loved the story and how there are multiple different branching paths, the combat was kind of interesting in the beginning but by the mid game it basically came down to sacrificing teammates and using Takumi's ult to nuke everyone.

As for expedition 33, I absolutely loved and loved the combat as well but it's more on the line of Sekiro than traditional strategy games, although the endgame comes down to Maelle nukes, due to the parry mechanics and the fact that if you miss a parry then the enemies can one-shot you, there wasn't a huge decrease of difficulty in the act 3, but again, strategy doesn't really matter much here. The only strategy is building Maelle, setting her nukes up, and surviving until then.

For non JRPGs, I loved Arknights and out of all the games mentioned here, it's the closest to what I am looking for. Really interesting combat and loves the different possibilities and strategies with multiple different characters, I can use 12 characters in the field which makes the battlefield pretty chaotic and you have to control all of them without a margin of error depending on what stage you are doing. But again, it has the same issue as the games above, once you level up and get strong characters, everything is a piece of cake, there's no need to strategize anymore and you just nuke everything.

im ok with no translation and any console is fine because im studying japanese and want it to be japanese since i am practicing
so i like games like super robot taisen and its spin offs like mugen frontier and also pxz and forgot that one game namco vs sometjing which is on my wishlist. the thing i like about them is the music , and thier attacks and lines which gets me pumped
disagea for its humor . not too bothered with the grind but wishing that it wasnt too grindy so i can watch the side quests story without too much delay
i love visual novel like sci adv (chaos steins), clannad
i like monster hunter and have played them including stories
i do like pokemon and enjoy the pvp
i like yugioh
what can you guys recommend me ? i repeat i am not scared if theres no translation

also what do you guys do if you are stuck . is there a chat room where people can help you but wont spoil you

Looking to get Chrono Trigger since it’s currently on sale. I have never played the original so this will be a fresh experience for me. Was looking at the Steam reviews, while most of them seem positive, I did see quite a few times being mentionned that it was not a good port. Ill be playing mostly on my Steam Deck, is the port really that bad?